Having led his country through the most devastating and consequential war in world history, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died just as the war’s end seemed in sight. For GIs like Roland Schump, Murray Shapiro, and Samuel Erlick, the loss of the only President they had ever really known, was as unsettling as it was shocking. In the final weeks of the war, as Germany’s defeat seemed all but certain, GIs still didn’t know what to expect as they liberated city after city. Many German soldiers couldn’t wait to surrender to the Americans who they preferred over the Russians, while other Germans fought on ferociously. No GIs wanted to lose their lives, or see their buddies lose theirs, so close to the end. Commander of A Company, Michael J. Daly felt so protective of his men in the final days of the war that he took out Four machine gun nests and fifteen Germans on his own during fierce fighting at Nuremberg. Most of the German soldiers Roland Schump now met didn’t seem to want to fight any more than he did. In the confusion of the final days, Sherril Hayes nearly accidentally shot an elderly grandfather and his grandchild. Hayes would never have forgiven himself. In fierce fighting at Cheb in Czechoslovakia, Harry Koty’s outfit found themselves outnumbered and outgunned by ten German tanks. Charles Savage exchanged fire with a deadly sniper in Pilzen, Czechoslovakia before he liberated a baby factory in Marienbad. Arnold Dutch Nagel was nearly taken out by friendly fire in the final days of the war. Earl Lovelace remembered a man from his company that was. An excited Dallas Finch couldn’t wait to pen a letter home as he stood guard outside the War Room at the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Forces as the Allied commanding officers accepted the unconditional surrender of the German forces. These stories and more in this episode of Always Remember World War II Through Veterans Eyes.
Roland Schump with his wife Phyllis and their grandchild
Murray Shapiro
Samuel Erlick
Harry Koty
Michael J. Daly
Arnold "Dutch" Natel
Earl Lovelace
Dallas Finch in the War Room
Dallas Finch returned to the War Room in 1995
